Certain off-road vehicles, such as agricultural vehicles (e.g., harvesters, combines, tractors, etc.), construction vehicles (e.g., loaders, bulldozers, excavators, etc.), forestry vehicles (e.g., feller-bunchers, tree chippers, knuckleboom loaders, etc.) and military vehicles (e.g., combat engineering vehicles (CEVs), etc.) to name a few, are used in agricultural fields, construction sites and other areas with a variety of ground surfaces which may be soft, slippery and/or uneven (e.g., soil, mud, sand, ice, snow, etc.) to perform various types of work.
Some vehicles ride on wheels with tires that propel them on the ground. As they are typically quite heavy and their weight is distributed over a relatively small ground area by their tires, these vehicles apply relatively high pressure on the ground. This high pressure tends to compact the ground on which the vehicles are supported and such ground compaction can be undesirable (e.g., compacted soil can discourage crop growth or otherwise adversely affect the area being compacted). Also, as the tires provide a relatively small contact surface with the ground, traction of these vehicles is often limited, particularly on wet grounds.
To address these drawbacks, some vehicles have been provided with track systems instead of wheels with tires. These track systems typically have elastomeric endless tracks which enhance floatation and traction of the vehicles on the ground. However, existing track systems tend to adversely affect other aspects of vehicle performance.
For example, existing track systems may detrimentally affect speeds at which the vehicles can travel on the ground compared to when they are on wheels. Existing track systems may also sometimes affect ride quality.
For these and other reasons, there is a need to improve track systems for traction of off-road vehicles.